Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said, though, that religious leaders need to stand alongside political leaders in speaking out against the attacks.

“They should really condemn the violence and they should make it clear that regardless of one’s feelings, violence should not be used in defense of the Koran or honor,” Annan said. “And I think what has happened in the way — I mean we talk of extremists, we talk of also some groups and they are usually very small groups, they undertake these activities but where is the majority? Where are the leaders? Nobody speaks up.”

And as many details of the attack remain foggy, senior administration officials speaking on background divulged yesterday what they knew of the timeline of how the tragedy unfolded in Benghazi.

At about 10 p.m. Libya time on 9/11 — six hours ahead of Washington — the “interim” U.S. compound in Benghazi began taking fire, and the extremists were within the walls within 15 minutes and firing into the main building, setting it ablaze.

At that hour, there were three people in the main building: Stevens, Information Management Officer Sean Smith, and a regional security officer. “They became separated from each other due to the heavy, dark smoke while they were trying to evacuate the burning building,” the administration official said. “The Regional Security Officer made it outside, and then he and other security personnel returned into the burning building in an attempt to rescue Chris and Sean.”

They found Smith already dead and pulled his body from the building. They were unable to find Stevens before smoke and small-arms fire drove them back. U.S. and Libyan forces weren’t able to regain control of the main building until 11:20 p.m. Remaining personnel in the compound were shepherded into an annex with a separate perimeter, also guarded by Libyan security, that also came under fire, a fight that continued until about 2 a.m. — and was won, the administration said, with the assistance of “one of the local militias who is friendly to the embassy” who came to assist.

In addition to the Americans slain, three were wounded and being cared for in Germany.

“At some point in all of this – and frankly, we do not know when – we believe that Ambassador Stevens got out of the building and was taken to a hospital in Benghazi,” the official said. “We do not have any information what his condition was at that time. His body was later returned to U.S. personnel at the Benghazi airport” where staff were being evacuated to Tripoli. That was around dawn Libya time.

They refused to answer questions about the specifics of the ambassador’s security detail that evening.

An administration official did say that in a review of security at missions around the world in preparation for the 9/11 anniversary, “there was no information and there were no threat streams to indicate that we were insufficiently postured.”

State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland said today that there are no clearer answers about the timeline in regards to what happened to the ambassador.

“We are constantly also learning lessons, particularly in the wake of a tragedy, as we have in the wake of past tragedies like the bombings of our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, so that, obviously, we can pledge to the American people and to our own work force, but I’m not in a position to give you any conclusions from any of that at this moment,” she said.

Carney said the situation around the world is being closely monitored as “Friday, tomorrow, has historically been a day when there are protests in the Muslim world.”

“It is very important and — that we get through the next few days, that cooler, saner minds prevail, that we’re able to do the due diligence on this 12-minute trailer,” Feinstein said. “And I think, you know, it’s such a farce. It’s so stupid. And the man that produced it certainly made no contribution to art or literature, truth or justice.”

Bridget Johnson is a veteran journalist whose news articles and opinion columns have run in dozens of news outlets across the globe. Bridget first came to Washington to be online editor at The Hill, where she wrote The World from The Hill column on foreign policy. Previously she was an opinion writer and editorial board member at the Rocky Mountain News and nation/world news columnist at the Los Angeles Daily News.
She is an NPR contributor and has contributed to USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, National Review Online, Politico and more, and has myriad television and radio credits as a commentator. Bridget is Washington Editor for PJ Media.

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1.
newrouter

“The US administration is now facing a crisis in Libya. Sensitive documents have gone missing from the consulate in Benghazi and the supposedly secret location of the “safe house” in the city, where the staff had retreated, came under sustained mortar attack. Other such refuges across the country are no longer deemed “safe”.

Some of the missing papers from the consulate are said to list names of Libyans who are working with Americans, putting them potentially at risk from extremist groups, while some of the other documents are said to relate to oil contracts.

According to senior diplomatic sources, the US State Department had credible information 48 hours before mobs charged the consulate in Benghazi, and the embassy in Cairo, that American missions may be targeted, but no warnings were given for diplomats to go on high alert and “lockdown”, under which movement is severely restricted.

Mr Stevens had been on a visit to Germany, Austria and Sweden and had just returned to Libya when the Benghazi trip took place with the US embassy’s security staff deciding that the trip could be undertaken safely.”

No mention of Marines? I know 2 were killed but I hear they were called in after the rioting started. Libyan guards disappeared before the attack. No mention of what happened to the 15,000 Manpads, surface to air shoulder fired missiles after Qadaffi fell. They can bring down an airliner.
Also understand the female Amabassador in Cairo who put out the standard apology to Islam would allow Marines there to have ammo.
Pretty inept foreign policy.

Why would anyone ever have such sensitive stuff in hardcopy format, just waiting to be stolen and read by these primitives, when it can be just as easily kept in a cloud or encrypted on their local servers?!

What are you going to do, throw the guy who made that silly video in jail you disgusting fascist?

I remember back in the 1990′s, we were assured that guy who did rap albums about killing the police, etc, were artist and had freedom of speech and were not doing anything wrong in the slightest, etc. Now these liberals want to do ‘due diligence’ to what exactly?

Islam demands human sacrifices. It is a part of their barbaric culture. This is what 9-11 was all about, not only 11 years ago, but this year as well. Islam demands human sacrifices, and this whole theater about some offending video, is just the theater that goes along with the ritualistic murder necessary. If it was not this video, it would have been some other excuse.

The Aztecs had elaborate rituals too. Granted the Islamic pagents are much more free form, but that is merely the differences in culture and geography.

I think that this meme should get out more, it might get some muslims to think about exactly where they are being led. If your imman is telling you God wants you to kill, or die, maybe they are not really talking to the right fella. Maybe they might recognize that murder is a more serious blaphemy than making a movie.

I never heard of this movie, until this whole thing exploded. Having read Rushdie’s “Satanic Verses” after the Ayatolla put a contract out on the author’s head, I doubt almost anyone would have heard of this movie if it were not for these protests. Most of the works that the mullahs complain about are rarely any good.

This makes me doubt that the movie is the reason, but merely an excuse. It is obvious to any observer with even a modicum of historical knowledge what is really going on. Surely many of you out there can see this as well.

The name Islam, I have been told, means “submission” specifically submission to Allah’s will. From time to time, Allah desires blood, human blood in particular. Islam is submission, even unto death. Not necessarily the local iman that send his believers out in suicide vests, but no matter. Between teh gullible believer and the clueless American, there is plenty to appease Allah. When Allah wants blood, the West need to recognize it as part of their religion and their culture.

It will take months to find out what happened. The person, or persons, who screwed up have gone to ground, or are spinning tales. This is typical of Washington D.C. We can be certain that our intelligence is crummy, or is not being assessed correctly. This is the 9-11 problem we spend billions to correct, the stove pipe problem. Apparently the only person who did not know about our secret safe house was me. It took mortar fire; people were killed.

I learned today that the Marines rushed to Cairo are not allowed to have ammo. I and others now know this. I do not value a Marine who lacks ammo. He is simply a target with big biceps, a useless stovepipe. It seems reasonable to substitute a lawyer, or journalist for each Marine. A Marine, with ammo, is very valuable.

All of the high dungeon spewed on G Bush for 9-11′s faulty intelligence does not seem to get much press, when our soil, is again, blood soaked.

We learned that the bad guys gained access in a few minutes without much resistance. Why we have such lousy security in one of the most violent cities on earth is a puzzle to this simple mind. Are State Dept. people allowed to shoot back at killers? Or must they ask permission first?

It is obvious that what we need is another high level commission to study why all of our prior commissions were useless. It should be chosen the day after elections, because there will be many high level lawyers needing a job on that day. Hopefully, the guys who screwed up and got our people killed, will be in that group.

State should continue to search for common ground with these killers. Considering the slime that is spewed out on Hollywood sex films, I admit a certain empathy with their forceful morality. Perhaps they could immigrate and create a new form of movie critic.

Diane Feinstein illustrates the world view of the left wing, neo-communist, hate-America first POS garbage that resides in the demokratic party, the WH and the media.
She is implying that the murderers in Libya had good reason and justification to kill Americans because some idiot made a movie; a movie NOT made in Libya. You have got to be joking.

By this line of reasoning, if anyone in any position, for whatever reason, says something that a group of people or individual finds offensive, than those offended have a right to burn down the homes and murder any individual(s) that are connected in any way whatsoever (e.g., by race, nationality, ethnicity, by the car they drive, religion, etc) to those who committed the “offense.”
What BS.
Clearly, this is another left wing effort to shutter free expression and ultimately remove the rights of individuals to speak their mind.
Of course, if anyone should suggest that the dumb, stupid , left wing POS, communist b***h Feinstein keep HER trap shut, well, let me guess, she would not like it one bit.
Oh, that’s right; only OTHER people must be prohibited from speaking freely, but not those who are, for all intents and purposes, comrades in arms of the CPUSA.
By the way, if the American Nazi Party or the KKK opened national headquarters in Manhattan, do you think anyone would object?
Then how come the CPUSA has their national headquarters there and no one objects. After all, communists have exterminated more people (100,000,000) than any other ideology in the history of the world. In fact, when it comes to mass extermination the communists make the the Nazis look like kindergarten kids.

Once upon a time the Democrats would have laid aside their political point of view and come up guns-blazing after someone attacking Americans. Today we see another example of how Democrats in Washington, the State Department, and the media have come to believe their party is more important than America.

I’m for giving the Libyan government a week to find those responsible, place their heads and transcripts of the investigation proving their guilt on pikes outside the Benghazi consulate, and pay reparations to the United States and the families of the dead and injured. Otherwise, we thank and reward those people who tried to help the consulate, close up shop, and take our people and our foreign aid with us when we leave.

Considering that my ancestors used to paint themselves blue and fight the Romans naked, I think my response is quite civilized.

I would imagine eight Force Recon Marines fully stocked and comm wired could have gotten it done. With a little air support, a squad of those guys would have unquestioned ownership of at least a few square blocks of wherever you put them.

When the US State Department vigorously protested the “persecution” of the sluts who called themselves Pussy Riot, we, Russians, kept asking you, what would have happened if the Rabid Sluts desecrated not Russian Orthodox Cathedral, but just an ordinary small mosque.
You kept telling us that “freedom of speech is precious”.
Now American paid in blood for the 12 minutes flick, authorities demand the removal (sic!) of the offensive video, and everybody is looking for a scapegoat.
“Piss Jesus”, “Dung Madonna”, “Pussy Riot, “Innocence of Muslims”, and the list goes on and on…
When will the West understand that EVERY religion is off limits for hooligans, dirty pussies and troublemakers of every persuasion?!

Andor, you’re wrong. EVERY religion can be criticized, mocked, and made fun of. That’s the American way. If Islam is too brittle, it will eventually break itself up banging against the United States (current leadership aside).

Seems that religionists who didn’t experience the horrors of Europe’s 30 years war are in capable of learning from that sterling example. The resulting depopulation and exhaustion of princely states in MittelEuropa taught the religions that as long as different faiths aren’t killing each other over irrelevancies, like what others think of them, they could have a pretty good life. Wars of religion are never about religion, which is why it is easy to dismiss criticisms and even mockery: nobody dies for a phony reason.

Do you know how many anti-islamic videos are up on YouTube right now? Must be in the thousands!

And they pretend THIS ONE alone “caused” their turbans to explode?! Please.

Still, I checked it out – amateurish, in a Saturday Night Live kinda way, it’s nevertheless perfectly halal: Everything they made ‘Muhammad’ say and do in it, was completely accurate as detailed in only the moslems’ own most official stuff!